Development of catalytic activity protocol for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to value added products

Utilization of carbon dioxide for the production of value added products is a challenging task. Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is one of the most promising techniques to convert the carbon dioxide into value added products. However, the development and selection of a suitable electrocatalyst is not so straightforward. The main problems are non-selectivity of the electrocatalyst toward CO₂ reduction, simultaneous hydrogen evolution reaction, and low efficiency of the process. To overcome these problems, many electrocatalysts have been studied and reported in the literature. However, there is no effective guideline to screen the electrocatalysts in a quick and simple way. Moreover, it is found that the method used for the screening of electrocatalyst is not accurate and has anomalies. Therefore, in this paper, a simple and quick protocol based on half-cell tests is proposed. The method provides a first-hand prediction about the electrochemical activity of an electrocatalyst toward electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. The protocol was validated and compared along with confirming the results by product analysis of the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ using full electrochemical reactor. The method was found satisfactory for the preliminary screening of electrocatalyst to reduce carbon dioxide electrochemically.